NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



lights, we found it to be but half an ell lower than the other part 

 of the mountain. Hitherto the height and breadth continued as be- 

 fore ; but now it began to contrad itfelf, and at the fame time to 

 defcend lower. There we could hear the darning of the waves* 

 and the fea was at leaft an equal height with us, if not over our 

 heads. Soon after we came "to fome more fteps, but being not 

 inclined to venture further, we threw down a ftone, and heard 

 its eccho for the fpace of a minute ; but whether it fell into the 

 water, or on the dry rock, we could not diftinguifh. Some conjec- 

 ture may be formed of the length of this cavern, from our having 

 burned two candles in our progrefs and return." 



Another remarkable inftance of a like fecret paffage in a moun- 

 tain, I fliall produce from my own experience. Hearing at the 

 parfonage of Oerfkoug, that in the diftricT: of the annexed chapelry 

 of Strande, not far from thence, a ftream had been found, which 

 iffued through a rock from the fide of a mountain called Limur, 

 and over it a cavern which probably followed the ftream, but of 

 the length of which I could procure no account ; I refolved to 

 •examine it myfelf, as on my vifitation to Nordal I was to pafs 

 near it. I furnifhed myfelf with a tinder-box, candles, a lanthorn, 

 and a long line to ferve me inftead of Ariadne's clue. My boat 

 put me afhore at the foot of the aforefaid mountain of Limur. 

 But it being extremely fteep, we were obliged to climb with our 

 hands as well as feet, and fometimes were hard put to it to clear 

 our way through the hazle and alder-bufhes. On the fide of this 

 laborious afcent, we met with a rivulet, ftreaming out, which di- 

 rected us to the cavern. It is indeed fomething wonderful, being 

 a kind of natural conduit, formed purely by the force of the 

 water through the folid rock, which was a compound mafs, 

 moftly confifting of grey pebbles, but about the conduit, of a clear 

 grey marble with bluifh veins; had this natural ftru&ure been 

 raifed by human fkill, it would have been a work of no fmall ex- 

 pence, for a few paces after getting through the thicket, which 

 almoft hides the aperture of the cavern, one is furprized with a 

 vaulted paffage of pure marble, without the leaft flaw or breach, 

 but with feveral angles and protuberances, all fo polifhed, as if 

 it had been a pafte mouldered into finooth globular forms. About 

 a hundred paces forward, the paffage continues in a ftraight di- 

 rection, 



